All stem cell lines falsified, South Korean researchers say

Bo-mi Lim, The Associated Press

Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, December 29, 2005

SEOUL, South Korea -- An already disgraced scientist lied about all of the stem cell lines he claimed were matched to different patients through cloning, investigating researchers said in a new jolt to the shattered reputation of Hwang Woo-suk.

Thursday's announcement all but ends the fraud investigation into one of three major cloning breakthroughs claimed by the one-time scientific superstar and national hero.

Investigations of Hwang's two other groundbreaking experiments are still under way at Seoul National University, where he worked before resigning in disgrace last week.

The latest news was one more disappointment to the scientific world, which had viewed Hwang's achievements as holding great promise for treating people with a variety of ailments, from spinal cord injuries to Parkinson's disease.

"The bottom line is that it's a major disaster to our whole field because the expectations were so high and now we are back to square one," said stem cell scientist Joseph Itskovitz, director of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel.

In the experiment deemed fraudulent, Hwang claimed in a paper published in May in the journal Science that he had created 11 colonies of human embryonic stem cells genetically matched to specific patients.

An investigative panel at the university reported last week that Hwang had faked the research on nine of the stem cell lines. On Thursday, it confirmed he also fabricated his research for the two remaining cell lines as well.

"The panel couldn't find stem cells that match patients' DNA regarding the 2005 paper and it believes that Hwang's team doesn't have scientific data to prove that (such stem cells) were made," said Roe Jung-hye, the university's dean of research affairs.

The university said that by next month it expected to wrap up all work on that case and to have findings on two others: Hwang's first blockbuster claim in 2004 in the journal Science that he created the world's first cloned human embryo and extracted stem cells from it; and his research published in Nature last August claiming to have produced the first cloned dog.

Prosecutors said last week they are waiting for the university investigation into all Hwang's research before launching their own inquiry. The scientific journals also await those findings.

"We were already worried about the 2004 paper and this doesn't make us any less worried," said Katrina Kelner, an editor at Science, who said the 2005 paper would be retracted.

Since soaring to international renown last year, the 53-year-old Hwang had become the focal point of pride in South Korea, a nation obsessed with education and achievement.

That has quickly turned to disbelief and anger as escalating revelations of fraud have been the final blow to many who initially supported him even as the first doubts emerged.

"The problem grew bigger and bigger as Hwang was trying to hide something about his research," said Jeon Ji-eun, a 33-year-old part-time worker in the port city of Incheon, near Seoul.